In my previous post, I’ve mentioned that I will add Gosick to replace either Fractale or Moshidora in the ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition, with the decision of ‘which one to be replaced’ to be made by the time this post was made. Well, Moshidora is out and not only Gosick comes in, but also the second season of The World God Only Knows series that will be reviewed today. The review for the first season is located here, which you should read before continuing with this post. My motivation for choosing this anime for the 8th review in the ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition is actually the same as why I watched Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!! (that particular animation technique), therefore read on to see whether this second season has it or not.

And the sweet-talking motherf*ck*r ensnared yet another victim in this brand new season.

Story:-
Continuing from the first season where the main male protagonist has to charm his way into the hearts of 4 girls to extract demon souls out of them, he now has to do the same with another 3 girls. Plus, he also has to deal with a brand new demon character that is plagued with crisis of confidence.

Apparently the info I mentioned in the review of the first season that there will be 5 girls in the second season is wrong. There are only 4 girls in this season inclusive of the new female demon. This is definitely a good thing for the second season because it exclude the girl with the worst conquering arc in the manga in the time of writing. There is a bad news though, a third season of this series probably not come, which means that the best conquering arc in the manga will not be animated either.

And just like what I have mentioned in my review of the first season, I’ve said that the arcs in this second season will be inferior to the first one. This indeed has turned out to be correct, with the best arc in this season (Chihiro’s arc) is nowhere as good as the first season’s best arc (Shiori’s arc). Well, that’s to be expected if the manga is any indication, but what I found weird is that the extensive improvisation seen in the first season are not duplicated in this season. This means that none of the arcs animated in the second season will be able to improve the way Kanon’s arc does in the first season (the manga arc is just average, the anime version is better) has managed to.

This scene isn’t in the manga.

It doesn’t mean that there are no changes between the arcs in the anime and their corresponding arcs in the manga version, it is just they are very minimal, maybe some changes to some dialogues and minor scene changes or deletions. The first arc in the second season is a testament for this phenomenon, where the differences between the two version are minimal. Unlike in the first season, the conquered characters in the second season doesn’t use their mini-chapters omake, which for me is another part where the second season has regressed from the first one. But what hasn’t changed between the two seasons is the spot-on pacing and also the smooth plot developments within the arc itself. Actually I feared that the pacing may be quickened because of minimal improvisations and lack of omake adaptations, but this isn’t the case fortunately.

Just like in the first season, the second season also made references to other games and anime or manga et. al. as seen in the screenshot below. Plus, the anime also animated some (but not all) of the manga filler chapters that is seen straddling the 4 manga main arcs in the second season. The final episode was capped with a teaser consisting of characters that will never be animated, but then again the ending was structured to accommodate a new season. I heard that there will an OVA, but that’s it. No third season planned.

Character development has improved compared to the first season, even if the prevailing plot hasn’t appeared yet. The main male protagonist (still the best character in this series) has more meaningful character development than he was in the first season, especially in that student teacher arc. The main female protagonist also has more of then compared to the first season, especially during the Haqua arc. The lack of a third season means that all character developments will stop prematurely then, which is a pity because the gains made by the main male protagonist in this season would have been useful in a certain arc down on the road.

Voice Acting:-
The main male protagonist voice actor is more consistent now than he was in the first season, while the main female protagonist has no improvement at all. As for the girls, only the voice actresses for the karate girl and the student teacher are good (the latter is the outstanding performer in this season), while the voice actresses for the other two girls are falling behind them. A regression from the first 4 girls whose performances are uniformly good.

Music:-
The multi-genre OST in this series is one of the defining aspects of the whole series, and it is still as good as ever without any regression at all. Unfortunately, you cannot say the same thing about ALL the OP/ED themes and also the insert songs. At least a couple of songs from the first season is actually good, while none of them is in this second season.

The first season doesn’t have this shit! Why Japan?

Animation/Direction:-
Just like Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!, the main reason why I watched this anime (my original plan is to watch it a few months in the future at least) is to prevent a sixth consecutive title being categorized under the blurry animation technique tag. After all, the first season doesn’t use it either, just like the first season of Highschool of the Dead. Unfortunately, as shown in the screenshot above, the second season for this series DOES USE IT. As usual, one point will be docked off the final evaluation of this anime.

Sixth consecutive anime titles and running. When will this madness stop?

Ignoring the regression above, animation quality in this second season is still good, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography now exists in the second season, but they are just average. The director is guilty of not repeating the great quality-inducing improvisation methods he used in first season, but still managed to keep the presentation aspects okay.

It is just unfortunate for the fans of this series (me included) that we will not see further collaboration of this two characters being animated in the future.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Inferior storyline when compared to what you can see in the first season, and the usage of the blurry animation technique means that the second installment of The World God Only Knows series is going to be inferior to its predecessor.

And it is also unfortunate for me personally, to not being able to see the best conquering arc in the manga version of this series, being animated in the future.

7 comments on “Review: The World God Only Knows II (神のみぞ知るセカイⅡ)”

Come on, Its not easy to make an animation. You need to consider that making an animation takes up a lot of time and effort. Can you dedicated yourself into making a 12 episode series within a short period of time flawlessly? The main focus of your review should always be on how different is the anime from the manga and story or plot etc. Blaming things like animation is just harsh.

From the way you were talking about it and plus the blurry animation crap, I was thinking you’d give this a 5.

And I fear no series is safe from the dreaded blur. I was watching Maria Holic Alive and noticed that there was some blurry animation there as well, which is pretty troubling considering this is Shaft we’re dealing with.

Without the blurry animation this would have been a 7 out of 10. You can apply that formula to any other titles that has the blurry animation technique tag applies to it. This means Oniichan would have been 7 out of 10 too, Infinite Stratos would have been 6 out of 10 bla bla bla. One thing for sure, those titles that employs this animation technique will never get a perfect score, no matter how good that title is, no matter how revolutionary it is and no matter how awesome it can be. That how much I don’t like that animation technique. It was used incorrectly 99% of the time.

Well, I realize, and what I was saying is that it would’ve gotten a 6 out of 10 without the blurry animation subtraction. Most of the time throughout the review, you were saying that it was worse than its predecessor, and since the last got a 7 out of 10, it’s fitting that this would’ve a 6 out of 10 (w/o blurry animation blah).

I understand this would’ve gotten a 7/10 w/o blur, but the way you were putting it, it sounded like it was going to get a 6/10 w/o blur.